


Fantasy Meihem

by FunkyMeihem



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Demon AU, F/M, Fantasy AU, FrostMage Mei, demonrat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2018-12-31 17:38:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12137667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunkyMeihem/pseuds/FunkyMeihem
Summary: A FANTASY AU of Overwatch (Fantasywatch? Overfantasy?) with Frost Mage Mei meeting with Demon Junkrat, and the unlikely and tempestuous duo starting their own quest to find a missing friend, investigate an evil cabal, and get on each other's nerves nonstop.





	1. Chapter 1

Mei had arrived at the spot where the demon was last seen some hours ago. Like most demons, it preferred a hot, dusty environment, just like this awful canyon she’d been tromping around in, where a river might have flowed a millennium ago before drying up and never seeing water ever again. The rocky red walls rose up high on either side of her, but the sun was directly overhead and they provided her no shadow and no shelter. And worse was that she couldn’t risk removing her full frost mage regalia, no matter how stifling it all was. Her fluffy robes and pointed hat were much more suited to withstand howling winds and blowing snow, rather than this awful heat that made the very ground steam beneath her boots. Why did her robes have to have so many layers? And why had she tailored it with so many pom-poms and silly bows? Everything felt so heavy and hot. It was going to make her tired if she stayed here too long, and she would need all her strength if she was going to find and defeat it, this evil entity birthed of fire and flame…  
  
The village nearby had been desperate for help, and she had answered. Sheep and goats had vanished from the peasants’ herds, plants had turned to charred ash wherever its footprints were found, and there were reports of high, cackling laughter in the night. They hadn’t been able to pay her much at all, but their plight had moved her and she’d volunteered to come and put this villain on ice.  
  
There was a soft crunching noise by her foot and she looked down, seeing the charred skeleton of some animal- a lizard, maybe- with the marks of sharp teeth all over its bones. She wrinkled her nose in disgust, kicking the remains away before removing her hat and wiping at the sweat rolling down her forehead. Sitting down on a nearby boulder, she reached for her canteen, tapping her staff against it twice as ice crystallized against the metal, cooling the liquid inside as she tilted her head back and drank.  
  
“Oi.”  
  
A voice came from behind her, and she inhaled sharply- a poor thing to do whilst drinking. A moment later, cold liquid was expelled from both her mouth and nose and she coughed wildly, gracelessly wiping at her face and trying not to choke as she turned to face it.  
  
“Is that sweet candy tea? Is it cold?” it asked. The demon just stood there in the middle of the canyon like he didn’t have good sense, staring her down with glowing yellow eyes. He wasn’t the largest one she’d ever seen, but he still towered over someone like her, even with his lanky form hunched over. The skin of his torso was vividly blood red, with a gaunt build and hungry, bony ribs, and his arms laced with lean muscle. Like most demons of his kind, he had angular features, with pointed ears, a pointed chin, and even a long, pointed nose below his curled pointed black horns. The tips of his dirty blond hair glowed red, trailing faint gray smoke. He was also missing two of his limbs, replaced with glowing red-black metal. He looked dangerous.  
  
He sniffled noisily, his nostril flaring up on one side, before asking again. “Sweet tea? Can ya share?”  
  
Mei launched upright, her staff at the ready as the azure crystal at its tip glowed violent blue, motes of ice shimmering around it. “You! Stay back!”  
  
He lifted both pointed claws in a placating motion, taking a step back with his limping gait. “Whoa! L-let’s not be hasty here, darl. I mean, you’ve already spit half it out on the ground there, how much you even got left?”  
  
His glowing eyes moved to the rapidly drying puddle of tea beneath her as he smacked his toothy maw unhappily, and she set her jaws and narrowed her gaze behind her glasses. She was onto his wily tricks, trying to distract her with the tea, no doubt so he could move in and try to attack her unawares. “I’m going to give you one warning, demon! You can return peacefully to your realm and be sealed within, or I’ll be forced to- I’ll have to destroy you! You’ve been a scourge on that poor village for too long!”  
  
He blinked owlishly, before a rather terrifying grin spread across his face, revealing a mouth brimming with razor-sharp white teeth. “Really? I’m a scourge? Is that the word they used, scourge? Heh! Blimey, that’ll impress the boys back home, that will. World-famous scourge! And they said I’d never amount to anything! Are the villagers real scared of me, then? Do they tell stories?”  
  
“Well, you’ve been eating their goats! That’s horrible!” She jabbed her staff forward a little more.  
  
“Wait, is this about the goats? Of course I’m going to eat a perfectly good free goat that wanders on in here, you see much else to eat around here?” He beckoned around at the desolate rocky outcroppings around them. “Really? That’s what they’re worried about, is the goats?”  
  
“You can’t just eat someone’s goats, that’s illegal,” she insisted, aware that the conversation with the demon was starting to seem a bit silly. Why was she even trying to argue with it, anyway? “Now…you have those two choices, demon! Banishment or being destroyed, that’s it!”  
  
He still didn’t seem particularly afraid of her, more disappointed than anything. His bony shoulders drooped a little as he glanced up and down her, glowing eyes alighting on her staff. “So, they’re just mad about the goat thing. And you’re here to try and fight me, then?”  
  
“Of course! They hired me to get rid of you.”  
  
He drooped a little bit more. “Oh. I kinda thought…you know. I mean, I’ve been such a scourge to them, and then they send this adorable lady wandering in here by herself, with a sweet tea. Like, I was putting two and two together, there…I thought you were…ya know?”  
  
“What?”  
  
Now he seemed a little uncomfortable, flexing his talons and looking away, and she could have sworn the flesh on his cheeks turned a little darker. He brought his false metal hand up to his mouth, and gave a sharp little cough. “ _…Virginsacrifice_?”  
  
Her mouth dropped open in utter disbelief. For a moment she wasn’t sure how to respond, her own cheeks burning and her voice full of clear offense. “What!? Of course not! Why would you- How would- How _dare_ you! Where would you even get such a ludicrous notion!”  
  
The demon took another step back, swallowing down the lump in his throat, waving both hands. “N-now no need to be offended! I was flattered! Thought you were super cute and all, and being a virgin sacrifice has a long, proud history of- _AAAUUUUGH!_ ”  
  
There was a whirl of red and black, flames trailing his form as he threw himself behind the nearest boulder, tumbling flat onto the ground as a whirling ball of blue slammed into the rock where he’d just been, crystallizing into long, jagged columns of sharp blue ice. The little woman in the elaborate get-up stood huffing and puffing in clear indignation, feet planted wide apart and her staff still lifted. A pair of curled black horns and lit blond hair slowly lifted up from behind the boulder until his yellow eyes were just barely peeking above it, gaping with wary fright.  
  
“Okay…I think we got off on the wrong foot here, why don’t we try again?” he offered in a small voice. “Look, there’s nothing wrong if you’re not a virgin and all. Hey, who am I to judge? Let’s just talk this out. We could make a deal?”  
  
“My virginity is none of your concern! And I would never make a deal with a demon,” she snapped, still clearly irked about the whole situation.  
  
“Look, darl, this whole thing is just a misunderstanding. I’m just an innocent bloke what happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You don’t think I like being stuck in this here canyon, do you? There’s nothing to do, nothing to see, nothing to eat but an occasional goat, and they took my friend! You want me out of here, I want me out of here, maybe we can work out some sort of thing?” He waved a gaunt hand above the rock as if motioning with an imaginary white flag. “I don’t want to have to fight a cutie like you. I just want out of here to find my pal.”  
  
Mei only halfway lowered her staff, still wary. “What do you mean, your friend? Do you honestly expect me to believe a story like that?”  
  
“S’truth, love! You haven’t seen him by chance, have you? Big boar-lookin’ type, about twice my height and five times as wide?” He crept a little closer from behind the outcropping, hands raised. “He got summoned somewhere nearby and I tried to follow, but the gate closed and now I’m stuck in this literal pit and can’t leave!”  
  
“A…boar demon? Someone summoned two of you?” she echoed. Her staff lowered just a little more, the tension in her shoulders relaxing very slightly.  
  
“Oh yeah, they’ve been summoning lots of us lately!” The lanky demon answered cheerfully. “Gotta be some high-quality stuff going on, if they can bind a big nasty fucker like my pal. Trust me, you don’t wanna try low-level spells on someone like him. Was afraid they were going to do the same to me, but they took one look at me and left me behind. Can you even believe it, love? Summoning us for a demon army and I didn’t make the cut? That one stung a little.”  
  
“That can’t be right. Nobody practices that anymore, it’s been illegal for ages. Really, a demon army? Is this some sort of silly story to distract me?” The mage woman scowled a bit but seemed a little more unsure, adjusting her bow-clad pointed hat.  
  
He gave her an amused look, uttering a shrill little giggle. “You really think something being illegal will stop folks, don’t you? Lookit, I don’t know what mortal politics you’re all bickering over this time, but I just want my pal back and for us to get back home. You seem like a fine, upstanding sort. Maybe a little too much, really, but…Come on, how about you help get me away from the gate, I’ll find my friend, and we’ll be out of your hair in no time. Eh?”  
  
“You just told me that someone is summoning an army of demonkind, and you don’t seem like you’re…” She frowned again. “Um…You don’t really seem smart enough to lie, like I thought.”  
  
He bared his teeth a little, looking put out. “I beg your pardon!”  
  
“Sorry!” she said quickly, then shook her head. Why would she apologize to someone like him? She relaxed her grip on her staff, resting its butt on the ground once she was sure the creature wasn’t going to attack her, and eyed him up and down. “Okay. You’re going to take me to where this summoning took place, first. I want to see if there’s any truth to your story. We can decide what happens to you after that. And you’d better not try anything…funny.”  
  
“Cross my cold, black heart,” the demon proclaimed loudly, running his pointer claw across his scrawny chest. A trail of smoking black was left across its skin with the motion, fading away slowly. “I mean, I’m a funny sort. Real winning personality, not bad in the looks department either, but you can rest assured I won’t try anything uh…ya know, untoward and all. After the whole virgin sacrifice thing. But I mean, if you ask, I won’t say no or anything. So if you get in the mood, just say the word and I-”  
  
Her staff started glowing blue again and her eyes narrowed.  
  
“All right, shutting my gob. You got it.” he said quickly.  
  
“That wasn’t what I was talking about at all. Ugh, would you just turn around and start walking, and show me where this happened? We’ll decide what to do after I can take a look around. This needs to be investigated right away. And then afterward we can look into unbinding you from here and seeing about your friend, all right?”  
  
The demon stared her down for a moment, head tilting in an almost dog-like way as he regarded her, but after a moment he merely nodded and turned about on his good leg, falling back into his limping gait as he started further down the canyon. She waited until he was a safe distance ahead before wiping more sweat from her brow with her fuzzy sleeve, starting after him. She expected a tense walk, what with the demon himself basically being held hostage before her. But to her chagrin, he waited for her to catch up a little, then tried to linger back until he was almost walking alongside her, arms folded behind him entirely too casually.  
  
“Sooooo! Tell me about yourself?” he suggested eagerly. “You got a name? Something I can call you, at least? Where you from? What’s your sign? Come here often? You uh…you like demons, then?”  
  
Mei sighed.


	2. Chapter 2

“Mei’s a cute name! Mei, Mei, Mei. Feels good on my tongue. You feel good on my tongue. Mei, Mei, Mei.” The demon yammered on from above her.  
  
She groped up blindly with her seeking fingers until she found a suitable hold amongst the rocks, pulling herself up with a little struggle after pushing her sleeves out of the way yet again. “Would you please stop distracting me, demon!”  
  
“Oi, you just going to keep calling me ‘demon’ then? I don’t like that much, too impersonal, like me just calling you ‘human’ over and over again, Mei. Can’t give you my true name but, how about you give me a nickname! You’re a nice girl, you could name me something nice.” He rolled over onto his back on the flat space up above, staring up at the sun as the ice mage valiantly struggled on the cliffs below. “How about it?”  
  
She was really, really not in the mood for this right now, banging her staff against the rock as a little platform of ice crystallized on the rocks to give her a foothold. But it began melting quickly in the desert sunlight. His high-pitched yammering continued on, though she only heard half of it, and finally she snapped back at him, ““Well…how about Jamison? That’s the name of one of my old boyfriends?”  
  
The demon’s eyes lit up, blazing bright yellow as he pressed his claws to the side of his face. “Y-you would really consider me-”  
  
“It was a bad break-up. I don’t like him very much,” she said matter-of-factly, scrambling a little further up.  
  
“Jam-i-son,” he tried, tasting  the syllables in the mouth as he chanted it a few times. “Jamison! Yeah, that’ll work. That’s a great name for me, darl, you’re so good at this,” he praised, apparently ignoring or simply unaware of her attempts at an insult.  
  
She sighed again and tried to concentrate on climbing.  
  
“This here’s the place! Just up ahead! Can’t go too far from the sigil or it’s curtains for yours truly. Really glad you’re here to help a guy out, you’re my lil’ fluffy hero.” The annoying demonic entity was hovering in a lounging position up on the cliff just above her, levitating a foot or so off the ground in a ridiculous way as she struggled to climb. “You uh…you sure you don’t need any help, there?”  
  
“I’m not just here to help you, demon,” Mei retorted, trying to keep her hat in place while ascending the escarpment. “This is my duty to investi-gghh!” Her words turned into a squeal as one of the rocks below her came loose, tumbling down in a torrent of dust and pebbles and leaving her foot hanging, flailing and kicking as she found a crack and wedged her cute little boot into it for hold. “I’m okay! I’m okay!”  
  
“How about a boost? I promise I won’t tell,” he cajoled as the dust settled, settling both hands under his chin in an infuriatingly coy way.  
  
Mei glared up at him a bit. She was currently stuck on the side of a steep cliff, with her legs spread awkwardly apart, her feet wedged into cracks, and her robes snagging at every limb when she tried to move. The demon might have been smug, but it was better than tumbling to her death to the ground below, just to have her remains eaten anyway. Grumbling under her breath, she finally freed a hand and offered it upward. “All right, maybe pull me up a little, but-”  
  
His claw smacked into her palm long fingers curling around her entire upper arm, and she was suddenly being lifted, light as a feather. The newly dubbed Jamison hauled her up as if she weighed barely anything at all, though for a moment she hung perilously out in the air and her belly clenched at the very real possibility of him dropping her. But before the fear could even really take hold, she was being taken in, and settled light as a feather against his bony chest, the tips of her boots scrabbling at the dirt as he very gently set her down.  
  
She grasped her chest, heart still hammering. “Um…thank you. I guess that was a little quicker.” When he didn’t answer her, she offered him a puzzled look. He was unabashedly staring at her now, their yellow centers brighter than ever. He leaned down to her height, and she leaned faaaaar back, mouth screwing up a little tightly. “Um.”  
  
In a flash of red, Jamison leaned close and sniffed noisily, nearly inhaling a nose full of her hair in the process. “Wha-wait! Hold on a tick! Is that-” He gasped in what seemed like genuine surprise. “Nooo! You can’t be!”  
  
She briskly went to push him away. “Stop that this instant! What are you doing?”  
  
“You actually are a virgin?! Holy tits, I can’t remember the last time I smelled a whiff like this! Ooooh, that’s the sweetest thing I smelt in a long time. Peaches and cream! Extra cream. No, extra peaches. Both, maybe. I thought I musta been mistaken earlier when you got so huffy about the virgin sacrifice thing, but you’re definitely-”  
  
“Get off of me!” She bellowed, voice uncustomarily gruff as she shoved him harder. “You can’t smell something like that!”  
  
The grinning demon let her push him, still lurking perilously close by and gesturing to himself with one claw. “Uh…Actually. Ain’t that sort of what I _do_?” he asked, as if it should have been obvious. He turned his glowing eyes to the girl, who was flushing so dark red they almost matched. “Aw, darl, what’s wrong?”  
  
“There is…nothing wrong with choosing to focus on one’s studies,” she said a little primly, staring down at a nearby rock as though it had become the most interesting thing in the world, so long as she didn’t have to look at him. Her voice was halting and hesitant, clearly not used to being confronted on the matter. Especially in such a brash way that only someone like him could pull off. “Not everyone has time for…things of that particular nature…And that doesn’t matter! We still need to focus on the task at hand, here! And you are not to mention that again, understand? You said you wouldn’t be untoward, dem- Jamison.”  
  
His eyes dimmed a little and the demon looked conflicted, still sniffing eagerly. But a moment later he sighed and his posture drooped. “All right, you got me there. I mean, maybe later we…Okay, yeah, task at hand, right? So, can you do something about this sigil or not?” He gestured one claw out, and she turned to find the marks on the ground, just like he’d said…and far more than that. Inside the summoning circle were smaller circles, many of them stained with blood or piled high with bones, feathers, and piles of rotting entrails. There were scorched marks everywhere, fire and lightning burning the sand to glass in places. Off to the side lay the charred corpses of two dead men, one who had had both his arms torn off, twisted in the dust, and the sand was dark from long-soaked blood. The smell of death and ash really hit her for the first time as the wind changed, and she turned and bent double, gagging audibly.  
  
The scrawny demon man stood over her and asked, “Heh, but I mean…if you still want to talk about the…v-word, thing…”  
  
The only v-word she could think of at that time was the word ‘vomit’, and he was definitely not helping. She flailed one hand to drive him a little further away, sucking in air as she finally managed to straighten up, adjusting her glasses beneath her wilting hat. “You didn’t say there were dead men here! You didn’t say anything about it being this level of…this!”  
  
“Oh yeah, my friend gave ‘em one hell of a fight! Heh, that one man there, you shoulda heard the noises when his limbs got plucked off. Try waving all your magic wand gibberish when you got no arms, bucko!” He drifted forward amongst the carnage, still levitating just a few lazy inches off the ground. “But that leader of theirs that was with ‘em…black cloak sort, weird owl mask, he got a hold on my friend and it went downhill from there. Bindings got him and I couldn’t help.”  
  
“A black cloak and an owl mask? And you said they were summoning more than just you two, right?” She retrieved her little notebook, scribbling this down.  
  
“That’s why I didn’t even try messing about with them. By the time we’d arrived, they already had quite the crowd here. Some even more powerful than my buddy, and that’s hard for me to even imagine. Even the pig only got a few blows in before they were on him.” He gave one of the corpses a little kick. “Wankers!”  
  
She was hurriedly trying to draw a chart of the sigil before her, mapping out where each circle was and what was in them. “My superiors are definitely going to need to see this. Illegal cabals performing mass summonings can never lead to anything good. It’s a bit of a travel to reach the city, but I have to deliver this information. Come on!”  
  
“For the last bloody time, I can’t ‘come on’! I can’t go beyond these canyons or out of range of this gate. You were gonna help. You said you’d let me loose, right?”  
  
“I never said I would set you loose, Jamison,” she corrected with a frown. “You can’t just go loose. That’s irresponsible.”  
  
“You can’t just leave me here!” He spread both arms, taking a step forward. “How about…How about you just take me with? Bind me to you instead?”  
  
“I can’t do that either. I can’t have demonic servants.”  
  
“Er…Bind me to something else, then! Something you can take with you, just get me outta this hole. Maybe I can still be able to look for my friend with you. Please, I’ll beg ya if that helps, just…don’t leave me behind?” He clasped both claws pleadingly, leaning down to almost bow before her, the spiky bones of his vertebrae jutting from his spine with the motion. “I’ll be quiet as a little rat in your pocket if you just bind me to something you can carry, won’t be any trouble at all. I’ll do it willingly, just need your permission and a quick spell, that’s all. You can take me with, drop me off with your folks if you like, do whatever you like with me. But don’t leave me here.”  
  
She tried to keep telling herself that he was a demon. A demon who was an epitome, an amalgamation, of base instinct and evil. He certainly looked the part, with his flaming hair, red skin, and dripping fangs. But…for a demon, he seemed awfully sincere, and hadn’t really tried to trick her yet. He didn’t really seem bright enough to, when it came down to it. He’d showed her where the circle was, he’d helped up the cliff, and though his manners were certainly lacking and she really needed to be clear with him about the virginity-sniffing…thing…he seemed to have no qualms with throwing himself upon her mercy.  
  
“Well I guess…Maybe I can turn you over to someone who has more experience in this sort of thing? If I temporarily bound you to an object, you’ll be harnessed to that instead.” She began searching in her bag for something she could use, and his shadow fell over her as he leaned in as well to watch. She had packed light, and most of the things in her bag were too practical or already magical implements she didn’t want to break with any demonic spells. She had a few camping supplies, though. The sleeping bag and her clothes were right out, of course. The last thing she wanted was this entity being so…ugh, close against her skin like that. Maybe a cooking pot? But then what would she cook in? She had a dirty sock with a hole in it, maybe that…No, that would be insulting to both of them. Or maybe it wouldn’t, to him? He was so _weird_ …  
  
The sun was beating down on her, and she pulled off her pointed hat to wipe away more sweat. Jamison gasped and clapped aloud suddenly, flesh meeting metal with a hollow clank. “Oooooh! Shiny! How about that, right there?”  
  
She felt atop her head, suddenly remembering the presence of her bun…and the hair pin that she kept usually hidden beneath her hat. It was long and thin, topped with a glass bead and a dangling snowflake charm, in the style of her homeland. She reached up with both and very carefully plucked it out, her hair falling loose in messy waves down around her shoulder. The snowflake’s metal gleamed in the light, jingling as she held it up. “Would this work?”  
  
“That’s perfect! Shiny, pretty, and I get to be tucked all cozy in close with you under your big ridiculous hat, the virginal scent of your hair…” He sighed dreamily.  
  
For a moment, she really re-considered the dirty old sock option.  
  
But he was already moving, scrabbling across the ground as he dug his metal claws into the dirt, drawing a set of circles and symbols she didn’t recognize. His serpentine tail, pointed and black at the end, whipped around as he spun, drawing another circle around his entire body, before straightening and giving her a cheeky wave. “Oi, Mei-love, put it in the other circle and put one drop of your blood on the pin for your permission, and right she’ll be!” He swayed back and forth within his circle, though she couldn’t tell if he was giddy about getting to leave this dreadful place, or getting to temporarily live under her hat.  
  
She took up the pin carefully, examining the sharp ends of the snowflake’s crystal. Pressing one fingertip to its edge, she pushed until the delicate needle-edge pierced through her skin, and a single droplet of scarlet red welled up. She smeared it quickly onto the red bead at the tip before setting it down in the little circle on the other side, and stepped back.  
  
He said something, in a language that she didn’t understand, guttural and unpleasant and it made her ears hurt. But a moment later that was a cracking noise and a flash of light, and then nothing was left of the demon’s form save a few embers floating away in the foul breeze. Waving her hand in front of her face, she approached the makeshift demonic sigils and retrieved her pin. The red bead seemed different now…lit up from within, red and yellow and orange whirling violently inside the glass. Hesitantly, she touched it, and it was warm against her skin. With a shudder, she twisted her hair back up and went to tuck the pin back into place, placing her hat back atop it, and scrubbed the eerie demonic heiroglyphs from the dirt with a few kicks of her foot before turning to leave this awful place.  
  
She paused abruptly when a voice seemed to echo out of nowhere, _'Yeh! Now this is ace! We’re gonna have such a great time, you and me, we’re gonna find my pal, we’re gonna have sparkling conversation, we’re gonna-’_  
  
Her eyes rolled up to her hat. “Why am I hearing your voice in my head!”  
  
_‘…Well I mean, I’m right here next to it and all, and we’re going to be together for a while so…Did I forget to mention that part?’_  
  
“JAMISON!”

 

***

 

Thanks to <https://n-ice-and-hot.tumblr.com/> for the wonderful fan art!


	3. Chapter 3

“Look, I’m just saying, you’re the one still stuck on the ‘goats’ issue. They wandered into my turf, they got eaten. Could’ve been a wild cat, or a bear, or whatever things you got here, but it just _happened_ to be me. That time.” Jamison’s voice whined in her head for at least the third time that hour.  
  
“They still weren’t your goats. And it wasn’t a cat or a bear, it was you, eating things that don’t belong to you! Those goats are almost all those people had, you could at least feel a little remorseful about it,” she huffed, despite having gone over this point a thousand times.  
  
“I was starving, darl! Trapped and starving!”  
  
“Well, I understand that there were…circumstances,” she admitted. “And I paid for the goats you ate, but you are absolutely not to do it again! If you want something to eat, we’ll buy it properly, because that’s how we do things here.”

"Heh. I know something else I want instead. Something sweet and moist and tender..."

"What? I don't have any meat on me."  
  
“I mean, I don’t just eat meat. If you really wanted to keep me fed without dipping into that cute little coinpurse of yours, we could…uh…do some things…” His voice trailed off.  
  
“Are you planning something nefarious again?”  
  
“Uh…Nothing. Maybe later.”  
  
For a while, they traveled on in the dark, her lone figure illuminated only by her staff.  
  
“Are we there yet? We’re getting closer, right? How many days has it been now? Ugh, time is torture on this side!” It was not long before his nattering began anew, unaffected by her audible sigh. “You sure you’re not going backwards? Can’t you just open a portal and pop us right to wherever we’re going?”  
  
Mei had stopped bothering to roll her eyes, if only to save her energy, the butt of her staff thunking against the ground steadily as she used it as a walking stick. “For the last time, I don’t work with portal magic. That’s one of my colleagues, and she’s very far away right now. Believe me, if I knew how to work portals, I would not…be here…”  
  
It had been three days. Their only stop had been to resupply at the village, where Mei gave them the news that the demon in the canyon had been ‘vanquished’ and that their goats would be safe to live out their happy goat lives from now on. Jamison had whispered to her the entire time, suggesting stories about their magnificent battle against one another whilst begging her to play up how powerful and handsome he had been. Mei had found her smile wavering more than once, but the villagers had rejoiced in her victory, rejoiced even more when she humbly refused their tiny offer of payment, given her a nice dinner, and the next morning she had set off in the direction she had come from- with the pesky demon safely stowed in the pin beneath her hat.  
  
According to her maps, this part of the road was faster, but she had never used it. Tall black trees rose up high on both sides of them, towering over everything and choking out the light below, casting everything below the canopy in perpetual black and purple twilight. The birds and insects had fled ages ago, and left only silent, many-eyed things that lived in the darkness between the tangled roots. There was no sound save for the sound of her boots and the occasional rustle of the wind that sent their black limbs shaking and clattering against one another, a hollow noise like rattling bones from far above. This forest was very old, very sick, and very angry. Anyone with good sense avoided it.  
  
So of course, she was here, tromping right through the thick of it and by all appearances, talking to herself. It had taken some getting used to, hearing that irritating voice in her head, and more than once she’d had to downright threaten him into silence, though it never lasted long before he eventually forgot and began bothering her again. But now she was a little glad of his presence and his chatter. The silence would have been deafening otherwise, and the darkness of the road loomed ahead with no light in sight.  
  
Jamison must have noticed her nervousness, uttering an overly-spooky little “Woo _ooOOOOoo_ oooo…” in her head.  
  
“Stop it,” she said firmly.  
  
“Little too dark for your tastes, eh love? Want me to come out and walk with you, light the way a bit?”  
  
She thought for a moment. She’d ordered him to stay hidden for obvious reasons, but there wasn’t a soul around for miles that she knew of, and the oppressive darkness threatened to overwhelm the soft blue light that her staff’s crystal provided. A little taste of his glowing fire, demonic as it might have been, would have been a welcome reprieve. But there was still the chance, minute as it was, that another traveler might be walking along the same road, and after another bit of pondering, she shook her head and knew he could feel it. “We shouldn’t. You’ve already caused enough of a panic as it is and we can’t risk it. Besides, I’m sure everything is fine. It’s just a little…Well, maybe it’s a tiny bit creepy? But only a little.”  
  
“Maybe one day I’ll take you back to my place when we find my pal, we’ll show you around,” he offered. “S’nice and bright and hot, not like here.”  
  
“There is no way I am going with you to the demonic realm, it’s probably full of fire and chaos and…I don’t know, unpleasant things? It was bad enough in that stuffy canyon. It’s much nicer in my homeland, nice and cool and snowy!” She beamed a little at the thought.  
  
“Sounds awful,” he replied promptly.  
  
“You’re awful.”  
  
“You’ll change your mind once you see it, darl. I’ll show you all sorts of treasures the others don’t even know about. It’ll be nice t’have you around, ol’ Pigface can keep the whole hordes at bay but he is not much for the conversation. Not like you! Now, you, I could talk to all day!”  
  
“I know,” she groaned. Jamison already could, and did, talk to her all day. “And don’t worry. I’ll explain everything to my Guild, we’ll find your friend, and then you can both be banished and head back home.”  
  
He was oddly silent for a moment, and it almost seemed to echo in the confines of her pointed hat. After a moment, his voice was a little smaller. “Yeah but…ya know. You could come with, for that visit? Or I could stay. I mean, there’s no hurry to anything, right, don’t need to rush these sorts of things! How about we just play that one by ear?”  
  
Her footsteps paused. The demon was lonely, and for a moment, she had felt sorry for it. “That…Well that’s to say, it’s not…for me to decide?”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“Well you’re…I mean, you’re illegal. You’re not supposed to be here at all. You have your own realm, we have ours, and you’re…well, you’re the epitome of evil?”  
  
“Aw, d’you really think that? Like I’m a big, strong, handsome sort of epitome? Flatterer. Charmer. I knew I liked you for a reason.”  
  
“Not you, you!” she said quickly, starting to walk again. “I meant demons as a whole. You’re more of a…” She squinted behind her glasses. “I still don’t know what you are.”  
  
He paused. “…Stop.”  
  
“I mean, I know you’re a demon. Because demons are all-”  
  
“Stop!” He said again, more firmly, and this time there was an edge to his voice. “Shh. Listen…”  
  
She paused, clutching her staff in both gloved hands. For several very long moments, she heard nothing but the soft sound of the passing breeze up in the treetops above. But Jamison’s tension put her ill at ease, and she swore she felt an icy chill travel up and down her spine, goose pimples raising all over her exposed skin. In a nervous motion, she leaned suddenly to smooth and adjust the bottom of her skirts, adjust the garters beneath th-  
  
There was a PTING!ing sound that rang out like an alarm from the treetops, and something whizzed past her ear where her head had just been, trailing a venomous glowing red. She startled, synapses firing at random, and tried move both forward and backward at the same time, feet falling out from under her as she was knocked onto her rump. She tried to collect herself, blood pounding in her ears and almost drowning out Jamison’s bellowing in her head, but even as she flailed both boots in the dirt for hold, she flopped foolishly from side to side like a newborn colt. At a loss, she brought her staff into the ground, the crystal glowing white-blue as ice rose up from nowhere in front of her with a whoosh and crackle of crystalizing air and moisture. She heard the thud, saw the ice splinter where another of those spells hit her barrier.  
  
Something loud popped in her ear and then exploded into reality. One moment there was nothing but licks of frost flickering through the air, and then Jamison was suddenly there, bringing with him his own whirling storm of ash and cinders, yellow and red and mixing with the softer blue of her frost motes. He uncurled out of the nothingness, reaching down and grasping her by both arms to haul her up off the ground. His pointed ears twitched and he smiled down at her, but it wasn’t his usual smile. This one was a leering grin that stretched out his features and bared almost every single one of his sharp teeth, lips pulled up to reveal pinkish red gums and the yellowed roots of his fangs beneath. “Think that one shaved a few hairs off you, love. Come on, come on, get yourself together!”  
  
Irritation took over panic and she found her nerve again, planting both feet down once more, if only just to spite him. “I-I’m fine! It came from up there, up in the branches.”  
  
“…Ice us up to our left, darl! Wait, I mean, other left! No, first left!”  
  
She flailed her staff to and fro as his directions changed, and managed to bring another icy barrier up on that side, just as there was another sharp ringing noise from the darkness overhead. A red glow hit the barrier yet again. Jamison put his back to hers, head tilted upward.  
  
“If it’s up there, we're nothing but targets down here,” he said.  
  
“Okay, we’ll just…we’ll just…” She looked around frantically, starting towards the tangled roots of the forest off the road. “Just give me a moment, we’ll try to find somewhere more sheltered, maybe if we get some cover, I can wall us in, we can make a plan!”  
  
“No time to hide! We’re going up there!”  
  
“W-wait! How are you g-”  
  
She cringed back as a pair of black and red wings, bony and ribbed like a bat’s, seemed to explode from his back, unfurling in a rush of wind and a flurry of glowing orange embers. They found the air and grasped it, flapping mightily as his arms wrapped around her and they went hurtling up into the air. Mei remained crushed against his chest, clinging onto him with her cheeks flushed as she held her hat in place. He offered her a smarmy, fang-toothed grin, with that same cocksure confidence as always. Their eyes met, dark brown locking with glowing yellow…  
  
It was all quite gallant until she realized that only one of his wings was actually effective and they were completely out of control. Whatever had taken out the limbs on his right side had mangled that right wing along with it, and it was crooked and torn, flapping frantically to make up for its lacking power. They were still technically in flight, but she realized that it was wobbly and steering was clearly not an option, and the unlucky demon’s flying ability was at about the same level as a very desperate chicken. He couldn’t fly very far or very high, but his struggling took them up into the trees and away from the open ground.  
  
Jamison overshot the limb he’d been aiming for, flinging out his metal claw and sinking it into the dense black bark of the trunk, leaving long raking marks in the wood that slowed them to an abrupt halt. It almost jostled his precious ice mage right out of his grip, and she was yelling something he didn’t really bother listening to as he wedged his other long arm up and under her breasts, gripping tight around her ribcage to keep her and all her silly poofy cloth from slipping free. He managed to deposit her onto a thick branch, hunching over her to make sure both feet were planted-  
  
His shoulder exploded in a spray of molten black ichor and he screamed, mouth stretching and dripping fangs inches away from her face as it spattered over both of them. He fell forward onto her, leaving the horrified little ice mage with both arms wrapped around his bleeding form, his wings sagging. The light shifted, filtering through the maze of bare branches overhead, illuminating the scene eerily. She tried to lift Jamison back upward, shoving and pleading, as a figure rose up from several yards away.  
  
It looked female, tall and lithe and beautiful in an otherworldly way. Her skin was a ghostly blue pallor, her lips painted dark and her eyes a luminous yellow that almost matched the fire demon’s…although as Mei looked on, several other eyes seemed to open from nowhere as well, covering the top half of her face like a spider’s. She didn’t wear robes or clothes, but dark shadows clung tightly to her body, bathing her in bluish-black from the neck down, shifting and wisping eerily over her skin. She strode forward, spike-clad heels digging into the wood beneath her and manicured black claws glowing the same dull red as the spells that had nearly killed them both already.  
  
The woman’s lips twisted into a poisonous smirk, lifting one hand to blow them a kiss as dangerous-looking red vapor drifted over her palm.  
  
“Hello.”


	4. Chapter 4

Mei lifted her staff, glowing blue and lighting up the eerie darkness of the treetops. Poising herself on the branch as best she could, she pushed the wounded Jamison behind her, jaw clenched and eyes narrowed to show that she meant business. Standing over the injured demon, she yelled out, “Who are you! What do you want from us!”  
  
The spidery woman tilted her head, cocking one clawed hand to her hip as the other raked through her hair, her multiple eyes blinking slowly, one after the other. “Hmph. A human. Well, ma chère, I have come to do you a favor.”  
  
“Favor? You appear from nowhere and tried to kill us, you’ve hurt my f…” She paused abruptly. Was she almost about to call someone as annoying as Jamison her friend? “My f…ffffire demon,” she finished lamely, before puffing up again. “And now you want to talk about favors? I’m going to give you one chance to walk away!”  
  
“Your generosity has been noted,” the spider woman replied dryly. “But I am not here for you. Merely, for him.” She gave the wounded Jamison a dismissive little wave of her glowing hand. “Frankly, I’m not sure why you didn’t bother to off him already, that one. But fear not, I am here to send him…home. That is my favor to you. Just a little gesture of goodwill from my employers, shall we say.” She smiled, black lips spreading around immaculately perfect sharp white teeth.  
  
“Well your favor isn’t needed!” Mei replied fiercely, staff still raised. “He and I have business together, and you’re not going to take him. So turn around and go back to wherever it is you came from. Last chance!”  
  
The woman pursed her lips in a very patronizing little smile. “Such a shame. Well, far be it from me to dissuade you. If you wish to give up your life along with this fool’s, I am more than happy to oblige. You may join your lover in oblivion.”  
  
“First of all,” Mei cried shrilly, “It’s not like that! And now you’ve given me no choice but to banish you!”  
  
“Y-you tell ‘em, darl,” Jamison said, still cringing around somewhere behind her. “That’s my girl!”  
  
“And _you_ , don’t say that!” she snapped quickly, lips pursing and almost looking back at him, before her eyes darted back to her new foe. “I told you, I’m not your girl!”  
  
“Well I mean, that’s not entirely set in stone…Hey, even she can sense it between us!”  
  
“Well she’s evil, and her opinion doesn’t count!”  
  
He began to stagger upright, still clutching his wound. “I’m just sayin’, your unspoken yearning hasn’t gone unnoticed.”  
  
“Can we not have this conversation here? Right now?”  
  
“So, that’s saying we can talk about it later?” He grinned. “Although it’ll be hard to wait. My heart’s still aching for you even now.”  
  
“There’s a spider demon trying to kill us, Jamison.”  
  
“What’s wrong with talking about our feelings, sweetness? Thought you liked that kind of thing. Not much good at multi-tasking, is that it?”  
  
“Okay, you need to stop being disingenuous about th- AAAAAH!”  
  
While the two argued, the spider woman had become noticeably more and more disgruntled, her multiple eyes darting between the two before all eight of them rolled at once, muttering a little, “Oh mon dieu…” before she reeled back, the red vapor flaring up around both hands as she pressed the attack yet again, flinging forth two bolts in quick succession at the distracted pair still arguing across the way.  
  
Mei’s shriek cut their quarrel short, whirling her staff to and fro to try and catch them. The red spells careened into the blue light of her staff, resulting in an explosion of blue-white sparks and two crackling booms, the reverb sending Mei’s boots skidding back until she almost tripped over Jamison behind her. Trying to plant her feet once more, she held up her staff as a mist of blue wafted in front of her, the preparations of another defensive spell. “We have to get closer to her! I can’t keep this up forever!”  
  
“I got an idear, love!” Still holding his bleeding his shoulder, the demon stood up tall behind her.  
  
“Well I don’t like your idea!”  
  
“You haven’t even heard it yet! Don’t be such a prat just because of a little life-threatenin’ situation or two!”  
  
“Don’t you call me a prat!”  
  
Behind the mist, the spider woman could hear the two of them still arguing loudly. This was going to be easier than she had thought. They were so distracted by one another, they had almost forgotten the actual source of the threat. A long, thin string of webbing shot forth from her palm, dragging her up higher into the treetops. Finding a better perch above them, all eight eyes opened and then narrowed, focusing in on the shapes below. If she could just find a weakness in the little ice mage’s shield, she could bring them both down from afar. Although…Maybe she would have just a bit of sport first. After all the trouble of finding them, maybe she’d kill the girl in front of him just before she disposed of him too, and send him screaming back to the other realm with her death fresh in his mind. What a…humorous thought. Black lips curled upward on one side as she took aim, looking for a weakness in the little mage’s protective shielding.  
  
Mei was having trouble concentrating, trying to focus on both her defensive spells and her spat with the demon. “It won’t work, because you can’t fly. Look at your wing!”  
  
“Well that’s an unfair assumption to make just because it’s got a few holes in it! Besides, I told you, that’s where you would come in. Help a bloke out, ya know?”  
  
“I can’t risk pulling down our defense spells for that! Just…Just be quiet for a moment, and I’m sure I can think of something else!”  
  
“…Well?!”  
  
“You’re not helping! How am I supposed to think, when y-”  
  
She started yet another protest, when there was a crackling sound, and one of the red spells hit the side of her shimmering barrier. Most of the impact was absorbed, as intended, but she had been just distracted enough that some of it had gotten through. It impacted with the side of her temple, in what would have been a deadly shot without her shielding. Even then, with only a fraction of its power, it caused her to stagger, droplets of blood flying from the side of her head. The shield visibly flickered and started to fizzle, but through the pain fogging her senses she managed to solidify it back into a solid sheet of ice around them…which would protect them for a time, but left them utterly trapped inside.  
  
“Mei! Mei!” The demon set upon her, pulling her up against him and taking her head in both hands to inspect the damage. “C’mon, babe. Ya still with us? Say somethin’ mean to me!”  
  
She still seemed a bit dazed, but the head wound had only stunned her instead of killed her. “We need to…What we need to do…”  
  
“Right! Original Jamison Plan it is! You ready, darl?!”  
  
“No!”  
  
“One two three go!”  
  
She bellowed his name, but it was too late. In a whirl of fire and flames, the ice suddenly exploded outward, shards hurtling in all directions as he shattered it from within. Another of the deadly red spells zipped past them, right where her head had been, but Jamison had scooped her up once more. Carrying his poofy bundle, he exploded up towards the treetops once more, trailing embers and flame as his wings flapped frantically, even the useless one. And…just like before, he fell short, and started to fall back down.  
  
The spider began to laugh as her opponents dropped, only to be interrupted abruptly when the fire demon hefted the woman above his head…and just pitched her forward with all his might. Admittedly, the spider had not been expecting that. Before she could even really react, with the ridiculously dressed mage spinning through the air towards her, the woman’s spell was already going off. With her staff glowing, Mei swung it like a baseball bat and sent a shower of icicles flinging towards the demon, showering her with razor sharp shards of white.  
  
She heard the spider scream, watching her reel back as black ichor began to flow down from where the shards had pierced three of her many eyes. And though the spider screamed aloud in a language she did not understand, she knew anger when she heard it. She began to fall into the darkness of the forest far below, still clutching her staff and hoping that Jamison was down there somewhere to catch her…but instead she felt an odd jerking sensation pulling her back, as a strand of webbing slung around her ankle and snagged her, sending one of her shoes spinning down into the shadows and leaving her hanging uselessly, upside down with her floofy skirts almost over her head, in the void.  
  
Panicking, she craned her neck to look upward, seeing the enraged, half-blinded features of the spider woman as she began to haul her back up.  
  
“I’m going to almost _enjoy_ devouring you, girl,” the demon hissed.  
  
She was perhaps going to go into detail about that very thing, draining her life essence slowly from her body until it left the little mage a withered and writhing husk, but she did not get the chance. Mei made one sharp motion with her staff, towards where Jamison was hanging onto one of the tree trunks for dear life. One moment he had his claws sunk into the wood, and the next, ice had exploded up beneath him…the impact sending him hurtling upward with enough force behind it that he hit the other demon like a literal cannonball.  
  
Mei heard terrible sounds from up above, unearthly shrieking and the dueling glow of both yellow fire and venomous red. Claws ripped at flesh, wounds opening on both of them as black blood rained down. Jamison might not have been a very graceful fighter, but he overpowered the spider by sheer force at closer range, his burning talons dragging her back when she tried to flee, and sinking his long fangs into her arm until it threatened to snap clean off. He received a nasty blow to face for his efforts, and in an explosion of red vapor, he was sent sprawling back away from her.  
  
Half blind and now grievously wounded, the spider went to make her escape. Slinging forth another of her webs, she aimed for a distant tree, the better to stage a safe getaway. But just as she went to pull herself to safety, she felt something tug at her foot. Ice was rapidly crystalizing around it, freezing her quickly and solidly in place. Far below her, with the girl still swinging uselessly back and forth, Mei’s staff was glowing again. Panicking, the demon collapsed back onto the branch and desperately clawed at it, chipping away with her good claws to try and free herself. Chunks of ice went flying as she chipped away, until at last it started to crack-  
  
The ice shattered just as Jamison leapt upon her a final time, both claws burning as he hit her with everything he had. Flames exploded in all direction as he made his mark, and Mei hid her eyes as it nearly blinded her. There was the sound of a cut-off howl…and then nothing but the hiss and sizzle of embers, and the heavy panting of Jamison from up above. When she looked, there was nothing left of the spider woman but a large scorch mark and spatters of black and red. She’d been well beyond banished, her wounds so great that she’d no doubt be bearing them in the other realm as well…but at least she was gone.  
  
Huffing aloud and snorting blood from one nostril, Jamison leapt down to the branch below him, searching for the string still keeping the ice mage hanging aloft. Finding it, he began pulling it arm over arm to haul her upward like a landed fish. “Mei! You all right?”  
  
Mortified, she folded her legs together as much as she could, suddenly very much aware that her skirts were hanging over her and her tights and underthings were on full display. “I’m fine! Please don’t look!”  
  
“Oh for…Okay! Yeah! I promise I’m not lookin’ at your cute little lacy garters with the blue bows or anything! Just gonna haul you up to safety here, nothin’ more!”  
  
“You’re bad at lying!” she yelled back, her legs scraping the branch as he finally hefted her back up onto solid ground. Her first actions were to flip her skirts back down and adjust her bows and her hat. The first thing she was doing when she got back, was buying a less floofy wardrobe. Ripping away the last of the webbing with a disgusted grimace, she cast it away and turned to inspect her wayward companion. “Oh…Jamison!”  
  
He was covered in blood, though she wasn’t sure how much of it was his. Black spattered him from head to foot, and his shoulder was torn open and raw, marked all over with rips and gashes from their clash. He offered her an equally stained smile, sharp teeth shining under yet more black specks. “Did ya see me get her, though? Did ya see it? Burnt to a crisp! Heeheehahaha!”  
  
“I saw it, I saw it. Do you think you can get us back down to the ground? If we can get back to my pack, I have bandages and medicine.”  
  
“Not feelin’ too keen, gotta be honest. But what choice do we got? Just don’t get mad about a bumpy landing, yeah? C’mere.” He sounded just a bit woozy, but dutifully went to gather her and all her frippery up into both arms. His wounded shoulder was a bit weak, but at least it made her throw her arms around him for a better hold. With a lopsided smile, he made the leap. His ragged, scarred wing would never be as useful as his good one, but at least the trip down was a lot easier to make than the the trip up. Bounding from branch to branch, flapping madly to slow their descent, he carried her down.  
  
The last step, as the saying went, was always a doozy. The last branch was very high up off the ground, and though he did his best, he went tumbling horns over tail as he made the landing. Trying not to crush her, he threw her out to safety before he skidded to a stop some yards away, plowing up black soil on either side of him. Coughing up a mouthful of dirt, he sat up and tried to put himself back in order, head spinning.  
  
Mei retrieved her pack, running back over to him as she began frantically digging through it. “Okay, I have a few herbal potions and some ointment, and then we’ll bandage you up. It stings a bit and smells like nettles, but you’re going to be fine, I promise.”  
  
He waved her off. “Heh, you’re adorable. Look, save the ointments and mortal stuff for yourself, won’t do much good for someone like me.”  
  
“I can’t just leave you like this! Look at your shoulder, you’re really hurt. What if…what if I cauterized it! If I made my ice really, _really_ cold-”  
  
“Can ya not!” He cringed and shrank away from her, covering his shoulder with both hands.  
  
“How do I heal a demon, then? I’ve never…been in a situation where I want one to be healed,” she admitted.  
  
He scrunched up his mouth and made a face, turning away. “Eh, you won’t do it. You’re not the sort.”  
  
That one stung her a bit, and she scowled back at him. “That’s not fair. Your kind had preyed on mine for ages, and all I’ve been trained to do was fight you. They didn’t teach us anything about how to heal you. But…that doesn’t mean I want you to be hurt. If medicine won’t work on you, tell me what will.”  
  
He actually chortled a bit at that, waving his metal hand. “Nah! Nah! I meant, you’re not the _sort_. You know, my pesky ways and whatnot, I gotta heal by taking.”  
  
That gave her more pause. “Um…”  
  
“Not even bein’ lecherous here or anything, honest. But maybe if I could get a lil’ something from you, I could at least heal up this shoulder a bit, yeh?”  
  
Her face went beet red, and she knew where this was going. On literally any other occasion, she would have brushed him off or ordered him away, but he was sitting slumped in the dirt, absolutely covered in blood and wounds from his frantic battle to save them both. And his shoulder was not looking well, not looking well at all. If her medicine wouldn’t be enough to help him, maybe it was at least worth finding out what would. So she managed to squeak a little, “What…do you mean?…”  
  
“Won’t be much! Promise! Won’t make it into anything! Just a tiny kiss, enough to seal it up, that’s all. Hey! I see that look, I’m not lying or sayin’ this just to lech on you! S’just how it is, not all of us can smear herb pastes on ourselves and heal up. Just a teeny, tiny kiss! No big deal! Uh…ya have kissed, before, haven’t ya?” He squinted at her.  
  
She rankled a bit, hackles rising. “Of course I’ve kissed before! But not a…you!” she sputtered. “It won’t hurt, will it? Is it a demonic draining spell?”  
  
“Blimey, love, you think I’d wanna hurt you after all that?” He looked a little crestfallen at that, as if the accusation wounded him more than the gashes littering his skin.  
  
“Can I just kiss you on the cheek or something?” she said in a small voice, disliking how thankless and petty she was suddenly feeling. “Or…I mean, just a little quick kiss, would that be enough?”  
  
“Forget it, won’t do it like that if you’re all squirrely about it. Just gonna lay low for a bit, then,” he said, and his figure started to fade away, breaking into bits of yellow and red flame and drifting back towards her pin.  
  
“Wait! Hold on, wait!” She cried aloud suddenly, and his form flickered and then solidified once more. “I’m not going to just leave you like that. Okay, I accept. We are going to have one kiss. Just one!” she specified, seeing his expression absolutely light up. “Just one kiss, so you can heal up that wound in your shoulder. But just enough for that, understand?”  
  
“Crystal bloody clear, yeh! S’just a kiss, take a bit of that spark and heal up my shoulder, no fooling. C’mere.”  
  
He opened his arms, one of them still bleeding from a vicious looking bite wound that he seemed too excited to feel. Mei swallowed, pulling off her hat and holding it to her chest. Okay. Kissing a demon. Kissing Jamison. Jamison the demon. But just to heal him up, that was all, just like she’d said. Stepping forward, she went to him. He seemed a lot taller all of a sudden, especially when he leaned down towards her. She was going to kiss a demon, the one who had been annoying her for several days straight. And yes, they had just fought a spider lady together, and this was just something that needed to be done to help him heal. Just needed to…kiss him…where he was leaning down and his bright, bright red skin was radiating heat, and that was what was making her sweat, not her own thudding heart and frazzled nerves.  
  
He leaned down towards her, lips starting to pucker and his molten yellow eyes closing…  
  
“…Would a handshake work?” she heard herself asking, before she could even stop herself.  
  
He opened his eyes and stared down at her in disbelief.  
  
“Sorry! Sorry sorry, I’m sorry!” she blurted out in a panic, before reaching up to grasp both sides of his jaw and pulled him the rest of the way down, kissing him.  
  
It startled them both enough that the kiss started out pretty terribly, if she was being honest. She all but smacked her face into his, and one of his unguarded sharp teeth made a tiny cut against her top lip. She started to turn her head to the side but he also turned his head to that side, so she tried to switch, but then he also tried to switch, and things were just not going very well at all. So she pulled back and gasped aloud another, “Sorry!” and tried again.  
  
This was a little better. It had been too many years since she’d kissed anybody, in the days before she had thrown herself into her studies. To say she was rusty was more than an understatement. But the second she got her lips on him, he started moaning and making little happy noises in his throat, and he was clearly enjoying himself no matter what. It was a little awkward, trying to stand on her tip-toes and be tall enough to kiss him properly, so she reached out to steady herself on both his arms, even the metal one, and he practically burned to the touch. She tilted her head to the side, cheeks and ears burning almost as hot as the demon himself, her lips locked to his.  
  
His arms twitched beneath her fingers, unable to reach for her. But there was a rustling rattling noise, and she was aware of movement on both sides of her. His wings, even the useless tattered one, were folding halfway around her, either holding her steady or trying to draw her in deeper. Probably both. She was vaguely aware that she was running out of breath, so she pulled away enough just to gasp for one…and then, without even checking on whether his shoulder was healing like he’d said, she kissed him again. When had she pressed up against him? And when had her mouth started opening up to his?  
  
She was only dimly aware of the little alarm blaring its ‘Too far! Too far!’ warning in the back of her head. It had just been a while, that was all. Maybe she’d gotten overexcited, or it was some weird effect that demons had on their prey. But she continued to kiss him, even when his arms looped around her waist and he started to tilt her back, and his mouth opened and she felt his tongue…  
  
Her eyes shot open. That tongue…That was definitely no human tongue. It felt long and lithe and positively sinuous, slithering between her lips and exploring within. It curiously moved along the blunted tops of her teeth before coiling around her own tongue, touching and tasting her, and slipping in more and more before she finally had the presence of mind to decide that it was too much.  
  
She all but ripped herself away from him, and to her mild horror, even then he had to take a minute to recoil that long tongue and withdraw it out of her mouth and back into his. He unwrapped both arms and wings from around her, and she staggered back, almost falling. But he seemed positively chipper, and rolled around his hurt shoulder, testing its movement. Her eyes followed his, and saw that true to his word, the grievous wound there was now nothing more than an ugly dented area where the flesh was still knitting back together. The bite wounds on the rest of him were looking a little better too, she had to admit.  
  
He merely beamed at her, tapping his shoulder. “Hey, not bad, thanks! Can heal it up the rest of the way on my own. Ya all right, darl?”  
  
She uttered an embarrassing, airless, rasping squeak.  
  
He nodded. “Yeah, same! Well, come on. Let’s get you patched up too, and then we got to be on our way. Still a long way to go yet!”

 

***

Thank you to[ https://n-ice-and-hot.tumblr.com/](https://n-ice-and-hot.tumblr.com/) for the wonderful art!


	5. Chapter 5

_“You’ve barely said three words to me in as many days, love. You’re not still tetchy about the shoulder thing, are you, is that what this is all about?”_

“NO!” she snapped, so virulently that it was obvious that that was what it was all about.

_“It was just a kiss!”_

“I know.”

_“What! I told ya it was just an option, I didn’t make ya! That’s what a decent bloke would do, right, why are you all pissy at me for it!”_

“ I said it’s fine! I’m not pissy!”

_“You are!”_

“It’s fine. I’m fine.”

_“At least let me come out and let’s discuss things, face to face!”_

“You can’t come out, and you know why. Too many people around. I already look like a madwoman, talking to myself.”

She sat at the dusty inn table, bent over a bowl of rather putrid-tasting vegetable stew while the crowd around her was busy drinking and laughing and playing card games. She both looked and felt like the odd one out, in her immense floofy hat and mage finery…even though it was torn and covered in dark stains from both human and demon blood. It really must have been offputting, especially judging by the reactions from the innkeeper when she had signed in for a room for the night. Her hat was starting to come apart, she needed to repair all the rips in her robes, and she was…honestly, starting to stink a bit. More than a bit. In fact, that might have also explained some of the innkeeper’s repulsion too.

_“Ooooh, that guy over there has one of those big roasted turkey legs. Mei, order me a turkey leg! I bet that’s even better than a raw canyon goat.”_

“Oh, fine. I’ll get you a platter but you have to wait until we’re in the room to eat it.”

_“How about a pig too? Can you order a whole pig?”_

“Wha…You don’t need to eat a whole pig! And I’m not made of money, the canyon village wasn’t exactly rich, and we didn’t…H-hiiii!”

She was still arguing with the demon’s inner voice when she realized that one of the tavern waitresses was standing and staring at her in a very perplexed way, perhaps a little alarmed…which was an understandable way to think of anyone who was babbling in one-sided conversation with the voices in their head. The woman pasted an unsure smile on her face and stayed back a safe distance. “Can I get you anything? I, er, I’m afraid if you want to order a whole pig for someone, it is rather expensive?”

Mei hunched down in her seat a little, tugging her hat down to cover her burning face. “No, no. I was just uh…I’m sorry about that. No, can we…I, I mean, can I order the turkey leg platter please. Please cover it, I’ll be taking it up to my room.”

“Anything else?”

_“A whole pig!”_

“No!” She snapped at Jamison, then realized she had said it aloud and the waitress was recoiling. “I mean, no…No, thank you, I think that will be all for me tonight. Thank you so much.”

The waitress was clearly more than a little eager to head back to the kitchens, giving Mei a wary glance as she fled. Mei groaned a little and leaned back down over her table, trying to force herself to eat more of the nasty veggie stew. “We have to do something about you being in my head. I sound like a crazy person talking to you. There shouldn’t even be a demon in my head in the first place!”

_“You’re the one who won’t let me manifest, let me remind you. You’re at least going to let me come out and stretch in the room, you said? I’m feeling a little cooped up in here. It’s enough to drive a bloke mad…Mad for you!”_

“Ugh.”

As ready as she was for a break from his constant prattling in her brain, she wasn’t sure about him physically coming out of her pin again. After she had kissed him to heal his wounds back in the forest, it had gotten entirely out of hand. And thank goodness it seemed that Jamison’s connections to her were only of the verbal kind and he couldn’t seem to read her thoughts. The evening of that kiss, even if she had banished him back to her pin immediately afterward, had resulted in far too many inappropriate dreams the last few days. She blamed it on a simple lack of physical affection beforehand, studying so hard for so many years, she hadn’t made much time for anything else. Including kisses. Including kisses that had far, far too much tongue, and wings and claws, and-

_“Mei! Oi, Mei!”_

She jolted back to awareness as Jamison called out to her, suddenly aware of the cloth-covered platter being set down in front of her. The waitress smiled down at her. “Here’s the last of our turkey this evening. Just let us know if there’s anything we can get you.”

“Oh, before you go! Is there any place to bathe around here? I’ve been traveling for a while and I’d love to get the dust off.”

The waitress nodded, leaning over to wipe down the table. “Mm. We have a natural spring nearby where folks go to bathe…Although I should warn you that it’s more of a summer thing when the spring gets warm. Not so busy after it starts to get chilly like this. But it’s cleaner than the river, sorry.”

_“Eugh, cold water. Sounds like a real nipple popper there, count me out.”_

“Quiet!…I mean, er…quite…Quite a good time, that sounds like! I’ll go take a look. Thank you, miss.”

With her face burning, Mei swept the platter out from under the baffled waitress and hurried off. Clattering up the stairs, she groped a room key from out of her pocket and swept back in to relative safety, away from prying eyes. Not that her room was much to behold for prying eyes anyway. It was tiny, barely able to fit the rickety wooden bed and its straw-stuffed mattress. A chair and a chamber pot sat nearby, but that was all. At least it had a window, opening out onto a dead, empty flowerbox and the thatched rooftops.

She sighed and sat down on the bed with a crackle, holding the steaming platter of meat on her lap before pulling off her hat and looking up towards her hairpin. “All right, foul creature, time to eat.”

 _“Foul creature? I resemble that remark,”_ he replied jovially enough, before there was a loud whooshing noise and a pop in her ear. A light flashed red and yellow, and he flared back onto the physical plane before her. Rubbing his claws together, he practically slavered. “Still wish you’da gone for the whole pig, but I guess this’ll do. Hand it over!”

His voice almost sounded a little strange now that he was manifested again. Clearing her throat, she held the platter just out of reach, even when he hovered up a bit off the ground and started trying to stretch his long, long arms to reach it. As short as she was, she couldn’t keep it out of his ravenous grasp for long. “Wait! Would you just be patient for one moment! I wanted to see your shoulder. Are you all right?”

Jamison looked vaguely surprised, settling back down to earth with a light thud. “Y’worried?”

“Well I…just don’t know very much about demon healing abilities. I saw it had mostly closed up, I just wanted to be sure it’s okay, so let me see it? And then you can have the turkey leg.”

He sputtered a bit, looking strangely bashful before he leaned down to her level. “Don’t hafta be worried. Here, see? I’m as right as rain. A little bit of er, borrowed energy, a little bit of rest. Voila!”

Sure enough, his shoulder had healed completely. The aftermath of their little kiss had mostly sealed the wound that had pierced it through, and now there was nothing but a small dented scar in his hide where it had smoothed over completely. If she hadn’t known better, she never wold have guessed he’d been hurt at all. Still, just to be sure, she tentatively reached up and went to press her fingers over it, watching the way the skin pulled taut.

“That’s…fascinating.”

He breathed out in a low hiss and leaned into her touch, yellow eyes half-lidding. His metal claw drifted upward, as if to clamp her hand in place, to keep touching him. A bit unnerved, she promptly let him go, and instead shoved the plate with the turkey leg up into his face.

“Ah…Here! Sorry! I forgot that you were hungry.”

At least she’d chosen the perfect thing to distract him. He lit up, eyes glowing all the brighter as he snatched the plate up, ripping away the cloth that had covered it. Grabbing the turkey leg in both claws, he carelessly threw the plate to the side, sending Mei diving to catch it before the dirty dish hit the bed. She would have scolded him, but he drew away from her all at once, ragged wings flaring around him like a vulture as he squatted with his back to her, facing the corner. His entire body shook, head darting down again and again as he began making the most wretched noises. He may as well have been ripping apart a live animal, making such disgusting ripping and slurping sounds.

She felt a rather horrid pang of sympathy for those unfortunate goats back in that canyon.

A similar pang of concern arose when he uttered a sudden ragged cough, and she wrinkled her nose and lifted off the bed. “Jamison, slow down! You’re going to choke. Nobody’s going to take it away from you.”

He lowered one wing enough that he could peer back at her, wide-eyed, his cheeks bulging and his chin shiny with grease. “Mmmmgh?”

“Really. Nobody’s going to take your food. You don’t need to do…all that.”

His face split into a sheepish smile, sharp teeth glinting, with little flecks of meat caught between some of them. That long, sinewy tongue rolled forth, licking along the surface, dragging away some of the scraps. “Uh! Heh, sorry about that, love!”

The sight of that familiar tongue sent a tingle of something or other shuddering in her lower belly…mixed with disgust at his supremely lacking table manners. She tried to focus on the disgust instead, pursing her lips. “If you were really that hungry, you should have said something.”

“Guess I was a little more peckish than I thought. Probably from healin’ up and uh…other things, since I can’t feed on…uh. Nothing. Don’t worry about that. Meat’s fine. Been hungry since my last goat. Guess I’m used to eatin’ up quick before anyone else can get to it,” he said. “Gotta scarf it so it won’t get snatched.”

“Do demons really steal food from each other like that?”

He snickered. “Oh, love, you don’t even know. I catch a nice juicy imp or some such? The second the blood smell’s in the air, you better eat up and eat up quick before anyone else shows up to pry.”

She made a face. “That’s…awful. On so many levels. What if I cooked you a nice potato gratin or some roasted broccoli?”

“Bloody hell, Mei. You’re already starving me something fierce as is, you trying to kill me for good?”

Sighing dramatically, she hefted up off the bed and held out the plate. “Here, at least let me throw out the bones for y-” She paused, blinking. “Jamison, where are the bones?”

“You throw out the bones? Are you absolutely mental? Perfectly good bones?” He gave her a perplexed look. “Huh. S’pose with those tiny little blunt veggie-chompers you’ve got, wouldn’t be much good for bones. Poor darl. No claws, no teeth, no wings…Fragile little thing, aren’t ya?”

“I don’t need any of those things, thank you. And if you’re getting ideas, I’ll remind you that I have northern frost magic on my side?”

“Don’t!” He recoiled with a gasp. “S’not my fault you’re all soft and squishy, little mortal. It’s adorable. You’re adorable.”

She just shook her head, putting the plate down on the chair nearby. “Jamison, you are one of the most…perplexing…things I have ever had to deal with.”

“Perplexing good or perplexing bad?”

The question made her pause. She really did have to think that one over. Sure, he was annoying, and loud, and apparently he could rip apart flesh and shatter bones with his teeth, and sometimes he still looked at her how a cat looks at a particularly plump rodent. He was still very much a demonic creature. But he had saved her, and protected her, traveled with her, and provided her with a companionship she wasn’t used to having before. And when he’d wrapped his arms and those ratty wings around her and had had his lips on hers, she hadn’t thought he was so terrible after all…

She cleared her throat and took a breath before answering as diplomatically as she could. “You’re not bad. Or, not as bad as I thought? I mean, for a demon. You’re not at all how I thought you’d be. And I…I don’t know how to feel about that…”

She had a strange look on her face, and he tilted his head slowly. She honestly did look as ‘perplexed’ as she had said, and he reacted immediately to lighten the confusion that hung about her. Waving a claw, he hovered up once more, draping languidly in the air as casually as he could and tucking her his arms behind his head. “Heh. Getting a soft spot for yours truly? How soft we talking?” He offered another razor-filled grin.

That did win him another of her little half smiles, almost appreciative. “You stop right there. And I will say… I’m definitely learning a lot more about demons than I ever thought I would know.”

“I could teach you a lot more? I could show you all sorts of things!”

“Nice try. The only thing I want to learn right now is the location of that mineral spring. I still have demon blood all over me and I must stink pretty badly. I’m going to go take a bath.” She stood. “You can stay here, I don’t think I’ll be too long.”

“Er, that might not work, remember? If you take the pin with, I have to stay in range,” he said blithely, picking at his fangs with one curved black talon. “And I’d rather you not leave my pin here in this dump, frankly. If the wrong sort picks it up, won’t end up well, will it?”

“Oh…I guess I forgot about that,” she admitted, smiling sheepishly at the floor and rubbing one arm. “I’m not using to binding demons to things, either. But you have to stay in the pin and I’m putting it somewhere where you can’t spy on me.”

The demon looked affronted, or as affronted as one could be with turkey grease still smeared on the side of his mouth. “I beg your pardon! I plan to be an utter gent about the matter, thankyouverymuch…Although, I think it would also be considered a very gentlemanly thing to offer to scrub your back for you, if you can’t reach it all. I’m real flexible, I could even scrub-”

“You are two words away from me digging a hole in the mud and burying the pin in there until you cool down.”

“Aw! Right, right, just a little joke. Zipping it.”

With another hissing pop, he flashed with a red light and disseminated into flecks of flame and embers, swirling out of existence as the jewel to her hairpin lit up from within. Frowning sternly, she twisted her hair back up into a bun, sliding the pin back into place. Shielding him with her ridiculous poofy hat once more, she rummaged through her bag and came up with a scrap of towel and a bar of soap.

“All right, let’s go. And I hope the water isn’t too terribly cold. I can’t wait to be clean again.”

* * *

 

“Oh! Cold! Coooold!”

The path to the aforementioned springs had been overgrown, a poor sign. It looked like few people had been using it the past weeks. From the inn and through the forest, the path finally opened up to a muddy bank and a small pond-sized spring pool. At least it was relatively clean, but when she dipped a hand in, she found it uncomfortably close to freezing. This was going to be a very short bathing session.

She spotted a cordoned-off area set aside to serve as the local baths, with a stone wall to separate it from the rest. Maybe in high summer this place was packed with bathers, but it was just as the waitress had said. She had missed the season and now it was going to be less of a bath and more of a chilly swim.

Jamie snickered inside her head. _“Nyehehe! Thought you liked the cold, love? Where’s all that icy bravado from before?”_

“Even frost mages prefer warm baths, thank you,” she said, unhappiness evident. “But I guess there’s nothing for it.”

_“Can’t you just use your magic to unfreeze it, or reverse the cold or some such?”_

“It doesn’t work like that. I can create cold, not heat.” She sighed, giving a little humorless laugh before joking aloud, “You’re the one that does the heat and fire business. Shame you can’t warm the water for me.”

She pulled off her hat and plucked at her hairpin, its gem still whorled inside with living flame. It pulsed a little, swirling in idle thought, then lit up as he spoke inside her head.

_“Well I mean. Actually. I suppose I could. If you asked nicely.”_

“Ha-ha.”

 _“For really! We’ll sit in that little rocky walled-in part, should keep at least some of the hot in. I’ll just keep the ol’ inner embers going, heat up the water for ya, long enough to get all your lady things done! Aaaaand-”_ He lifted his voice in a shrill way when she opened her mouth to interrupt him. _“I won’t peek or nothing! You can even make me swear to it, if you like.”_

“I am not falling for that. You don’t even like baths. You said so yourself.”

_“I don't, at least when you’re not with me! We can even go squares, you can pay me with another meat platter or another lil’ kiss for yours truly. If ya want, of course. Hey, it’s your bath, it’s up to you.”_

“Absolutely not,” she huffed. “You are staying in that pin, and I’m covering you up behind those bushes until I’m done.”

_“Your choice, love. Just thought I’d offer.”_

“No.” She poked one finger against the glowing jewel, which made him giggle. True to her word, she trudged off towards a few shrubs and a fallen log, before tucking the hairpin into a divot in the wood and putting her hat atop it. “And no peeking. That’s an order.”

Without the pin right next to her, his voice was a little fainter, further away. But even then she could hear a sullen tone to his _“Fine.”_

Rolling her eyes, she plucked off her glasses and began to disrobe. Her poor clothes…She’d had them all custom-made and now they were covered in tears and stains. She could at least wash them later and do a quick patch-job where she could, but she’d likely have to shell out for professional repairs and new rune thread when she was back in the city.

She’d gone to the canyon village to help them, not for the pay. But even then, the job hadn’t gone as planned. Instead she had landed herself with a rapidly dwindling coinpurse, an annoying demon, and alarming news about an evil cabal. Once she was back to the capital city, she’d need to report all of this to her guild. And she would have to report Jamison too.

Hopefully they wouldn’t be too hard on him. Maybe she could explain that he wasn’t an ordinary demon. He was…different. Maybe they would let her stay with him when they questioned him. Just to be sure he was being treated fairly, of course. That would just be the right thing to do.

Folding her robes and shimmying out of her stockings, she pulled on the much-too-small travel towel, not even able to wrap all the way around her, and made a little dash from the bushes to the water. Padding across the banks, she stood at the edge of the water and took a very deep breath. Okay. This was going to be cold, but she could handle cold.

Tossing her towel atop the protruding stone wall, she forced herself into the water. It felt like pins and needles all over her legs, nearly knocking the breath from her. Wrapping her arms around herself in a completely vain attempt to hug some warmth back into her chest, she began shivering wildly. Grasping for her soap, she could barely feel it as she tried to work up a lather.

Jamison’s faint voice returned. _“Ya all right, love?”_

“F-f-fine, thanksssss.”

_“Uh, can hear ya chattering from over here.”_

“N-n-no! It’s great! V-v-very refreshingly brisk! Mmm!”

She stood there in the water, completely unable to bring herself to dunk herself in above the waist, still trembling miserably.

After another long pause, he coughed politely between her ears. _“So uh, about that. You want a warm-up, sweets?”_

“…Y-y-yes. Thank you. No peeking!”

That popping noise again, and a sparking glow over by the bushes announced his manifestation. She instinctively reached out for her towel, holding it in front of herself and watching carefully. Without her glasses, she could see a blur of red between the branches before his looming form stumbled out onto the bank. But his eyes were closed, and she could see how his pointed ears swiveled as they tried to find her sound, honing in on the chattering of her teeth.

“Ov-v-ver here,” she called gently, and he grinned and made a beeline for her voice. “Sorry about this. I’ll make it up to you.”

“Nah! Hey, just doing my girl a little favor for he- _HOLY HELL!”_ His foot hit the freezing water and his words turned into a yelp, jumping back as if it burned him. Maybe it did. Maybe it felt more painful for a creature of fire like him. She felt even worse when he actually whimpered. “Never mind, you owe me big time for this one, lovey! J-just give me a tick, here!”

Like a champion, he wrapped his gangly arms around himself and waded straight in, clad in his ragged shorts and all. With his eyes still shut, he bumped into the stone wall and huddled into the freezing water. It was all a bit pitiful, on one hand, but she felt her heart give a strange little leap at his courage. And even though she had no attunement or inclination towards fire magic, she could feel it start radiating off him a moment later. With his face twisted into a scowl of both discomfort and concentration, a wave of heat swept off of him in a breeze that sent her hair fluttering.

The water took longer to be affected, but as he continued to emanate that steady warmth, she could feel the numbness in her legs start to recede. A little bit longer, and it was tepid, then lukewarm, and then finally it became pleasant enough that she could discard her towel and sink in up to her shoulders. With a sigh, she leaned back against the wall and let the heated water soothe a body that she hadn’t even realized had been aching.

“Oh that’s…so much better. Thank you, Jamie. Are you all right?”

“Better now that I’m not freezing my tits off. And your tits off. You’re welcome,” he said, horned head canting towards her even though his eyes remained closed. “You’re lucky I’m on your side, sacrificing myself and whatnot.” With the water now at a tolerable level, he leaned back on his little stone seat and draped his lanky arms back against the wall, lounging in the bath across from her.

“I’ll buy you an entire roasted chicken, okay? I know that couldn’t have been pleasant for you. But thank you.”

His face split apart into the tooth-filled grin, metal fingers snapping before flashing her the gun. “Hey. Anything for you.”

“But…why?”

“Eh?”

She also leaned back, slouching into the water until it was up to her chin, her hair floating around her. “I mean, why me? Is it just because I’m the first one to find you in that canyon? You just…You seemed to get so attached to me so quickly, even if I was…” She trailed off, trying to find the words.

“A bit of a prat?” he supplied happily.

She frowned. “Those are not the words I would have used, thank you. But I suppose I have to admit I can be.”

“I dunno. Yeah, you can be a bit of a pill. Don’t seem to like me being a demon very much, like that’s my fault. But I like the way your face gets when you get all mad. And the way you smell? I’ve whiffed plenty of mortals, even other virgins, none can compare. And I’ve met plenty of folks who claim to be all goody-goody and righteous. But you? You actually believe it. Y’are it. Got a thing for conviction, love. Might be lacking it, myself, but you…Oh-ho-ho, I like the way that you are. A beautiful, mean, brilliant, amazing little ice virgin!” His head lolled back against the wall, staring up at the sky with his eyes still shut. “I dunno if those are reasons that work for ya. Let’s just go with ‘You smell nice’.”

Her face went a little pink. “I appreciate some of that, but…You keep bringing up how I’m not,” she coughed into one wet hand. “-experienced.”

“S’wrong with that? That’s a rarity this day and age, especially with a prize like yourself! I’m surprised you’re not attracting other demons to you like flies, really. S’like uh, lemme think, like a mortal seeing a nice ripe peach. You can smell it, and you know it’d be so fresh and sweet and juicy if you could just take that first bite…”

Her face went from pink to red, and she sank in up to her nose, muttering something under the water. “Bbbblrbllbl…”

“Yeah! Hear, hear. I guess I’m just still surprised you haven’t had blokes or ladies or whatever, ya know, how did they not break your down, trying to win your heart?”

She looked down at the ripples in the bath, pooling water into both her hands and tossing them up to splash the dirt from her face. With droplets still clinging to her lashes, she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands before looking at him. “It’s not a unique story or anything, Jamison. I had someone I cared about. And I thought he cared about me. But he was…it turned out he was caring for someone else too. And the way I found out was…hard.”

“Who! Who’d do that? Ya want me to rip him apart?”

“No! Don't rip anybody apart. No, I got over him years ago. I think. I decided to focus on my studies instead of what he did. I wasn’t going to let someone like him ruin my future. I decided I was going to work hard, and never think about him again.”

“Did it work?”

“…No.” Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat and straightened back up. “It hurt me a lot more than I ever thought something could hurt me. But at least I found out before we…I mean, I was going to. I thought it was love, and I wanted it to be with someone I loved? But he couldn’t wait, I suppose. And after that, I just concentrated on my studies and my work with the guild. That’s all. It’s a common story, it happens to plenty of people.”

“Don’t care about those other people. Care that it happened to you. Rotten blighter. Even more rotten than me.”

“You’re not rotten,” she said, so viciously that it surprised the both of them. She sank back down into the water quickly, almost guilty. “For…a demon. I mean. Not rotten like he was, anyway. He wouldn’t have braved icy cold waters to warm them up for me, for one.”

“That’s a point for me!”

Her lips twisted into a little smile, and she drew her pointer and thumb together to flick water at him. “But your table manners are atrocious and all your chattering in my mind gives me a headache.”

The demon turned upon her as the droplets spattered his bare red hide, the water actually sizzling and dispersing into steam. “Oi!”

She perked up a little with interest. Had his temperature really risen that much? Maybe she could sidle just a little closer to see, without him noticing. How much energy was he expending to keep this up? She never would have thought to even ask such questions before, back when she only saw them as pests and quarry. And Jamison was…well, he was still a pest. But he was no longer quarry. She could ask questions about demons that she had never thought of before.

In fact, she had quite a few questions for him. About that and more.

She grasped for the soap as it floated nearby. “I guess we need to talk about what we’re going to do when we reach the capital? For when we send my superiors out to hunt for that cabal, and so that we can find your friend.”

He seemed to deflate a little at that, and through his eyelids she could see how his gaze went downcast, flickering towards the water. “Oh yeah…When we reach the city. I guess we can talk about that…Although can ya…” He spoke haltingly, worrying at his lip with one sharp canine tooth.

“What?”

“Can ya be there? I mean, will they let ya say goodbye? Will I see ya? …Before they banish me?”

She felt her throat tighten. She’d almost forgotten about that part. Maybe some part of her had been trying to forget that part. For a moment she wasn’t sure what to say, and could only manage a rather pathetic little, “I…I think so? I can try…?”

He didn’t answer, and she could feel the heat from him start to gutter and die. So she blurted out the first thing she could think of to try and fix it. “But maybe we can work something out! Maybe! I’ll talk to them. I mean, I don’t know, but I’ll try. Maybe we don’t have to jump so quickly to the banishment part. I mean, maybe you could….stay? At least for a while longer. You could stay.”

“Heh. Maybe is better than nothing. And we still got a lot to do. Although uh…Hey! Why don’t we discuss that back in the room, after we’re done our little bath here. Get all lathered up, darl, get all fresh and scrubby-bubbled.” The water heated up around them, and the demon seemed his normal overly-cheerful self once more as he lounged back in the bath.

“I guess I should enjoy this while I can,” she agreed. She focused on working the suds through her hair, washing her face and dunking her head under the water.

When she came back up, sputtering and wiping at her nose, her blurred vision saw a streak of dull greenish-brown color go hurtling through the air, and there was an answering wet thump back up towards the banks. Squinting, she couldn’t quite make out what it was, so she asked. “What was that?”

He turned his blind face towards her, momentarily confused. “That…? Oh! Those! My trousers. Got tired of them sticking to my legs. And s’what you do in a bath, right?”

She froze, staring at the now naked demon across from her.

“O-oh.”


	6. Chapter 6

“S-so,” she coughed. “Why don’t you tell me a little more about this friend of yours? The other demon?”

He turned his head towards her, and for a moment she was afraid that he might be able to see her. His gaze still glowed a faint molten yellow, even behind the thin curtain of his eyelids. But they stayed shut, and he snorted so hard that wisps of gray smoke drifted from his nose. “What? Whaddaya wanna know about him? You having designs on my mate before you even met him?”

“What? No!” She snorted back at him, shoulders dropping in frustration. “The whole reason you’re even here is so that we can hear your report on that cabal, and find your missing friend. You should at least tell me who we’re looking for. Who is he?”

“Who is he? I dunno…He’s himself, I guess. Big boar bloke, really old, really cranky, not the sort you want to mess with. But me and him, we’re best mates. By which I mean, he keeps the others at bay and in return I bring him half of whatever I find. Took him a while to warm up to me, still got a few scars from pitching the idea to him. But persistence is key, darl. Eventually he came around.”

“That sounds like a very unique kind of friendship?” Mei said, squinting at his closed eyes. “So he’s much older and more powerful than you are?”

Jamie huffed again, hunching down in the water. “Well, don’t gotta say it like that. But yeah, guess so. Generally, you don’t mess with someone like him unless you’re really, really read to risk it. S’like I said, that’s how you know that Owl-Mask and company have got to be contenders, if they were able to bring him to heel like they did.”

“Like those men that were missing their limbs?” She shuddered a little at that gruesome memory.

“Hell, if that’s all he was able to do to ‘em, they must’ve bound him quick. Looked like he didn’t even time to eat anyone.”

“He…eats people? Your friend?”

“He eats everything. Everything or everyone, whatever he can find first. Bones and all, yeah. S’funny.”

Mei did not seem to think it was funny at all, scrubbing at one of the cuts along her arm where it was threatening to scab again. “Jamison, I respect that you’re friends with him. But if he’s that dangerous to people, I can’t just-”

“Oh! Oh don’t worry! I wouldn’t let him devour ya! I’ll just stash you somewhere safe real quick, explain to him what’s what, that you’re off limits. Might rub on ya so you smell like me, just so he knows I got to ya first and you’re mine. That way he won’t -Aggh! Hey!” His words were garbled when a splash of water spattered across him, propelled by Mei’s slapping hand.

“Nice try. I’m not yours, and you’re not going to rub your demon smell on me.”

“Fuck’s sake, you try to be a gentleman with some basic safety precautions and look where it lands you. Fine. But I will have to explain to him that you’re off limits. He’s a hungry sort. Tried to eat me, plenty of times. But it’s like a sort of ‘mutual respect’, like where I really respect him, and he doesn’t _always_ try to kill me.”

“That’s not what mutual…Okay. I guess that’s just another aspect of demons that I don’t think I understand.”

“You’ll like him once you get to know him! I mean, probably.”

She turned her face away when he stretched, water bubbling and steaming slightly where it met the narrow ribs and hard planes of his chest- No. She refused to look, shaking her head clear. It was probably just the steam, making her woozy, was all. She tried to stay on the safer topic. “Do you miss him?”

“Miss him? S’pose I do, yeah. Do you even know how tough a time I’m going to have of it without him? Do you have any idea how much shit I’ve talked from behind his back? If anything, I gotta get him back so he can keep on keeping the others from skinning my hide. Or, I can just stay bound to your pin. And you!”

“That again? For the last time, I am not binding you to me. And you’re only in my pin until we can get help. I’ll explain your story and everything to the others. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that you and your swine friend aren’t going to be hurt. I mean, if he doesn’t try to hurt them first…”

“Heh. Any other day, I would’ve had a giggle at the idea of you and anyone else trying to stop the hog. Now…I guess not so much. The big lug’s gone and got himself taken away. And the fact that they sent that spider after me, the one what tried to kill us? I guess they’re not keen on me blabbing about it to anyone else besides you.”

“We still have a ways to go. Do you think they’ll send more people after us?” she asked, worry in her tone. “More demons? To try and stop us?”

She could see the way his glowing pupils swerved towards her again, and he subtly scooted forward on the stony bench beneath them, moving closer. She immediately tensed, but he stopped short, stretching his wings open casually above him.

“Don’t you worry your adorable, fluffy little head. I’ll keep ya safe. Keep ya so safe, you won’t know what hit ya!”

“That does sound safe,” she deadpanned. “But I still have concerns.

“We’ll handle it together, you and me. Ice and fire, yeah? I’ve got your back. And your hat. I’ve got pretty much the whole area around you, wherever you are. I’ll keep an ear out for any demons headed our way, just in case. Especially while you’re sleeping. You been sleeping all right, darl? You keep sweating and muttering and moaning a little. What lil’ mortal things are you dreamin’ of, I wonder?”

Her eyes widened and she dared not answer. Had that kiss really bothered her so much that it was affecting her even while she was sleeping, speaking aloud her dreams? She needed to do something about that. Although what she could do, she wasn’t entirely sure. It had just been to heal his shoulder, a simple necessity. Like stitches or bandages. Or lips locked together and being held with wings and heat and a long, long tongue…

“You still there, love? Or am I just heating up this water for nothin’?”

“Just washing my hair!” she said quickly, turning away and making a point to splash water loudly onto her head.

“Your voice is all high, there. Heh. Are you blushing? I think I smell you blushing.”

“You can’t smell someone blushing.”

“How do you know what I can and can’t smell? Just so you’re aware, you have a very distinct scent to begin with. And you smell all pink and ruddy and blood-filled when you blush. Like, a sort of pink smell on top of all the virgin smell. It’s, uh…Huh, never tried to describe it in your tongue before.”

“That’s unnerving. And would you please stop… _smelling_ private things about me? It’s making me uneasy.”

He sighed aloud, leaning back and blithely scratching at the base of one of his horns. “Ya know, I’m used to you bein’ a bit bossy and all. Kind of like that. I respect that. But askin’ me not to breathe is a bit thick.”

“Even if you can smell it, it doesn’t mean you have to start making comments on it. How would you like it if I started blurting out private things about you?” She scowled and began lathering more bubbles into her hair.

The demon turned on her with his razor-toothed grin, and she sank into the water a bit more to hide her chest, even if his eyes were closed. “Yeah, that’s not gonna work on me. I’m an open book, darl. I’d love it if you started prying at me. Hell, I’ll tell you some of my most private secrets right now!”

“Please do not. And maybe demons don’t have much of a concept of privacy, or maybe you don’t, but people do. I do. Besides, I already told you what happened. Or um…I guess it didn’t happen…My point is, that’s a sort of private matter. It…really hurt me, at the time.” Her fingers, covered with soapy foam, paused in their massaging of her scalp. “Maybe it still does, even though that was years ago. I guess maybe it was the principle of the thing? It’s silly, really.”

“He was a right bastard, sure. And ya know, offer’s still on the table if you want me to off him. Rip him apart and eat him. Won’t leave anything behind but a few stains, and then you can forget him.”

“Okay. Your offering to murdering him is sweet in its own way, but misguided. I don’t want anybody dead, no matter how much it hurt my pride. We both went our separate ways, and I’ve been fine, really. I don’t need…you know.”

“Just because you don’t need it doesn’t gotta mean you don’t want it.”

“Maybe you should try thinking about things other than…certain wants?”

“Hey, I think about lots of things,” he said, seeming a tad affronted as he held up one curved black claw to stifle her. “But those ‘certain wants’ are pretty high up there. You won’t find a better way for me to feed. It’s even better than eating. And besides that. S’fun. I love it. We demons love it. Even mortals love it. Don’t let one bad egg ruin it for you for the rest of your life.”

“I never said…I mean, I never said that it was permanent, or for the rest of my life. I just never really made time for it, is all. I mean, other than…” She pressed her lips together, and she could feel her ears reddening again. What if he was able to smell that too? Why was he leaning forward like that? “I mean, you know? Just doing it myself, sometimes.”

“Eeeh?” He questioned her with that little noise, a little higher pitched.

“You know! I do some things…by myself! Sometimes!” She clamped both wet hands over her face, kicking herself for even bringing that up. He had pestered her into it, admitting something so embarrassing. She considered lowering herself the rest of the way into the water and just drowning. “Never mind!”

“Aw, love, don’t be so squicky about that. You’re a prime lady on her own, of course ya would. Your own fingers are better than nothing at all, eh?” He waved a claw airily. “Give myself handies all the time. Especially when I’m all cooped up.”

Mei turned to give him a rather shocked look. “Wait. When you’re in the pin, you can…do that?”

“Well not physically as you know it. I guess handy isn’t the best word for it if I don’t have hands. Can’t grab my own cock if it’s not there, but I can sort of twist the essence a little where I need it. Hell, that’s hard to explain to someone who can’t dissipate…”

Her face was back in her hands. “You’ve been masturbating right next to my head?”

“I beg your pardon, but I have not. Been a perfect gent. I wait until I’m on the table or under your pillow, thank you. And I told you, it’s not the same thing. I know how t’be polite!” He seemed awfully pleased with himself, even while Mei was still screaming on the inside. He scooted just a little closer, grinning with those razor teeth even though his eyes were still closed. “There it is again! You’re blushing real hard now, aren’t you! Smells sweet and cherry-red!”

“I did not sign up for this,” she moaned into her palm.

“What? It’s relaxin’ and it staves off the hunger pangs for a while longer. I mean, not t’be shitty, but frankly you could do with a bit of relaxin’, yourself. You know. Get yourself all worked up and then let it all out…”

“If you must know,” she said, even though she had no idea why she was defending her personal habits in such a way. “I generally reserve that sort of thing to my own bed. In privacy. And it’s not so simple. I’m not always…I mean, I don’t always…relax…” Which was true enough. She’d been alone for such a long time that it was really all she had, and even then she did it sparingly. She always had other things to focus on, and her own fingers weren’t always enough to satisfy her. Why she was admitting this to a demon, again, she had no idea.

He was quiet for a very long few moments, and when he spoke again, his voice was practically a purr. “Well, love…we’re already relaxin’ right now, aren’t we?” He waited for an answer, perking both pointed ears, but didn’t receive one. So he kept going. “If you feel like you’re up to it…We could relax a little more, yeah?”

She hugged herself a little unsurely, covering her chest even if he couldn’t see her. Being propositioned by a demon was not something she’d ever expected to contend with. Nor had she ever thought that she would even consider it. But she was. She was considering it as even a remote possibility, and that surprised her. But she couldn’t, could she? Not with something like him. Surely not.

He tilted his head at her again, seeming to sense her turmoil. “Now now, not going to flip you or anything. Just relaxin’. Don’t even gotta kiss or touch me back, can keep my eyes closed, but I can help ease some of that tension you always got. Rub your shoulders for you? Your back?…Somethin’ else?”

Once more, he scooted across the stone seat towards her. And still she didn’t order him to go silent or to go back into the pin. He was still radiating warmth, and she could feel it all the more as he sat next to her, steam still wafting up from the disturbed water around him. It felt even nicer with him close by. And though the bath was making her feel so much better, maybe it could feel even nicer? Maybe just a little.

“Maybe just…a little,” she echoed her own thoughts. “But you still have to keep your eyes closed, okay? Can you maybe rub my shoulders?”

His wings flared open at that, rustling the wet locks of her hair, and a burst of steam emanated from the water beneath him. She guessed it to be his enthusiasm, emerging through the gray vapors with both claws lifted. Scooting across the stone, he was abruptly upon her, the side of his thigh brushing hers where they were both still naked beneath the surface. He reached out blindly, fingers wiggling. “C’mere c’mere c’mere.”

“You won’t scratch me, will you?” She’d seen what those talons could do.

He paused, the light of his eyes flicking towards her voice beneath his lids once more. With a very quiet and rather unpleasantly fleshy noise, his curved claws shuddered and shrunk back into his fingers, flattening out. Even the one that looked like metal, but certainly didn’t react like metal. She watched it happen, leaning forward a little.

“They can do that?”

“They can do lots of things! Calls for a delicate touch, this. C’mon, c’mon! Let’s soothe those nerves!”

She smirked a little at his impatience. “You’re very loud about being soothing.” But she turned so her back faced him, and held her breath when she felt his fingers touch upon her shoulders.

He wasted no time, pressing them in against her flesh, pushing his thumbs into her shoulderblades. Rubbing them in circles, he increased the pressure quickly. There was a rather sickening set of crunchy noises from the muscles and tendon around her scapula, so loud that it almost made her wince. She could feel him massaging the knots, carried in the tension around her shoulders, chortling to himself the whole time.

“Bloody hell, darl. Bloody hell. You’re like a little coiled spring in there. There we go.” He pushed his thumbs into her once more, urging the muscles beneath in different directions, over and over. “See, just you and me, relaxin’ together. Nothing to it. Feels good, yeah?”

And it felt good. It really did feel good. Pulling her wet hair over her shoulder, she relaxed enough to let her head drop, rolling her neck and feeling his touch shift up to rub more circles along the tendons there. She uttered a little appreciative “Mmm…” and heard him rumble happily behind her. Much like their embrace back in the forest, it had been a while since she’d actually felt anyone else’s hands on her like this. And it felt really, really good.

Maybe she really had been more tense than she’d let on. With the heat of him so close by, the water still steaming around them, and his fingers digging into the meat of her back, maybe she could unwind a little. So long as he didn’t try anything too forward, she could relax. Like he’d said. Not that she’d tell him that he was right. But maybe he was right. A little.

His breath wafted so hot on the back of her neck that she wondered if he was starting to breathe flame, his claws coming to a stop atop her shoulders. “Gonna get your lower back, yeah? Can I?”

She nodded, and he felt the motion rippling through tendon and tissue. His palms slid down her back, under the water, still rubbing and circling…until they hit a sore spot in the curve of her lower spine. Her back arched as soon as he pressed it, and she made an unhappy noise. With a sympathetic but rather snickery little “Aww…”, he pressed more lightly and carefully. And while he was doing so, he sneakily went to rest his pointed chin atop one shoulder, so close that she could almost feel his grin.

“How’s it feel? Better? Ya feel better to me. My poor girl, this is what she needed. Keep going? Permission, right?”

“Mm-hm…” she heard herself say.

He kept going. Large, strong hands massaging away the tension in her back that she’d forgotten she’d been carrying. It was nice, this. It was so nice and warm and her own eyes drifted shut, letting her head drop back until it hit his shoulder and rested there. She could have fallen asleep like that, were it not for the guttural purr right next to her ear.

“Can I keep going, darl?”

“Mm-hm…”

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, if she was feeling this good, and he could make her feel even a little bit better. She could stop him if it was too much. Just a little massage, that was all…

His hands slithered up and down her spine, dipping back under the water…and then they slid forward, briefly cupping the curve of her broad hips. And then he was moving forward again, fingers curling and gathering as he slid them down over the slope of her belly. Down even more, through the little patch of dark hair above her mound. He wormed through where her thighs instinctively moved together, until they brushed against what he sought.

She inhaled sharply, and he waited. But when she merely breathed out again, he proceeded downward, until the blunted tip of his finger split her lower lips and pushed just inside. He touched and teased, studying, feeling the shape of her. It had been so many years since anyone had touched her there. She’d forgotten what it was like, to have touches that were not her own…It was almost a little strange, a little alien, feeling his fingers starting to stroke her.

But he’d had her permission, and so he welcomed himself to her, keeping his touches light and delicate for now. Wrapping his other arm around her middle, he gently pulled her closer to him, twisting his torso until she was pulled against his ribs and side. At a better angle now, he moved his wrist, sliding his finger along her opening and then up to the little hidden button just above it. His eyes were still closed, but he didn’t need to see. Could feel her better that way. Tiny and tender and soft, just like the rest of her.

He aimed his attentions on the sensitive little bud of nerves, rubbing back and forth, applying more and more pressure behind his movements, more stimulation on the hood of her clit. It seemed to be working well, listening intently to the sharpness of her breath that changed so subtly as he tried out new things- Little gasps she didn’t think he could hear. But as he continued, she was becoming less and less concerned with hiding them.

“There she is,” he purred in her ear. He rested his chin down on her shoulder once more, keeping it there for a moment before angling his face slyly to the side so he could start kissing at her neck. He could feel her pulse through his lips, in time with the very subtle and rapid thunder from inside her ribs. He grinned again, muttering between kisses. “You and me, together, just relaxing…That’s good. That’s nice. Perfect…”

She barely seemed to hear his murmured praise. She leaned back against his chest, the source of heat stronger there, even amongst the almost scalding water. The steam rising from it only helped to fog her senses further. Maybe even a little too much fog. She didn’t even realize that she had started writhing, that he was forcefully holding her in place against his side, hunched over her and kissing at her throat and her collar as his fingers moved unseen beneath the water and she spread her thighs a little wider for him.

But he never moved further into her, never more than a shallow press of a fingertip or two. Barely enough to feel how different her inner wetness felt compared to the water that would wash it all away. Instead he focused on the tempo he could tell was affecting her most, how it made her lungs hitch and her little body shudder. Focused on building and building more of it, winding up all that tension inside her until she was trying to arch her back, stopped only by his crushing grip to keep her in place.

He could tell she was close, and wanted to close the moment with a kiss. Needed both arms though, one to hold her and the other for her pleasure. He tried nosing at her neck, urging her to turn her head, but she was nearly gone and didn’t take the hint. So he let his jaw drop open, sinewy black tongue rolling forth and slithering up along the side of her chin, leaving a very faint sheen of shining saliva as it pushed her to look at him. She looked vaguely startled as she turned, only for his tongue to pull her straight up into his open lips.

He kissed her, harder than before, twisting his lips against hers as she nearly contorted against his body. At the same time he pressed two fingers up against her slit, and hit that spot to send her undone. She tore her lips away from his to gasp a little half-cry against his open mouth…and he devoured it. The little mage’s gaze had gone far away, seeing stars as something like electricity mixed with fire jolted through her. And he fed eagerly on the heady essence she emitted as she came.

More ethereal than food, sweeter than sugar candies, fresher than a late spring ice. And that was just barely a lick to a flavor that nobody else in the world had tasted yet. No wonder she protected it with such zeal. Still holding her as she gave a little shudder, he gorged upon her while he could, pressing his lips to her neck and sucking a little bruise as he did. It would have been so easy to overdo it with such a taste, to drain her until she was weak. But as tempting as she was and impatient as he could be, it was still just a taste, and he would do himself no favors to ruin her. No, not her.

So instead he just held her through it, licking at her throat as she came back to her senses. Her dark eyes cleared, and she shifted in the water, looking up at him as if she was unsure if she was relaxed or unnerved. A combination of both, really, feeling dazed. She was unable to stifle a little noise of disbelief, not quite a giggle.

“I…I can’t believe we…I mean…a demon…?”

He grumbled against her throat and his sharp teeth gave her a nip, eyes rolling up beneath their lids. “Really caught up on that, aren’t ya? Ya weren’t too caught up on it about ten seconds ago.”

“I’m sorry! It’s just…I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

“Feel better?”

She did. She felt so immensely better she didn’t even know how to describe it. Perhaps a little tired, but more relaxed and content than she had been in a long time. Although she wasn’t entirely sure what good manners were supposed to dictate here. How did one treat a demon that had just done something like that with her? To her?

“Um…Thank you?”

He grinned widely at that, releasing her from his grasp and letting her move again. “See! I’m happy, you’re happy, everyone’s come out feeling nicer than going in. Especially you, darl. Think you needed that. Happy t’be of service! Heh. I’ll service you.”

Her gaze half-lidded. “Really? Back to the comments already? And I was so relaxed a moment ago.”

“Hehe!”

She went to wipe some of his tongue’s stickiness away from her neck, and blinked a little at her fingertips, shriveled and wrinkled on the ends. “Oh! How long have we been in here? I’m all pruney. We should…get back to the inn.” She lifted from the water, suppressing a shiver, and went to grab her glasses and her little towel. “Give me just a moment! Oh, here, I’ll get your pants for you. Why did you even throw them so far?”

He leaned back with his arms folded behind his head, looking far too casual and smug for his own good, crooked smirk tilted up on one side.

“Guess I got excited. Not every day I get a bath with someone like you, sweets. Almost makes me wish I bathed more. I mean, almost. Blimey, that was good, even just a taste of it. And now I know what makes you tick a bit, makes you twitch, makes your little legs shake. I mean, just a first go of course, can definitely improve upon a few things. Not to worry, we got loads of time.”

“Jamison…”

“Can I open my eyes next time? Bet you make the cutest faces. Because you definitely make the cutest sounds. Drives me mad, those little noises. And you know, you get all tense and snitty so easy and I get so hungry, so I think it’s definitely best for everyone if we do this more often. Lots more often. In fact, since we’re staying the night, we can come back here tomorrow morning! Yeah! I’m thinking two or three baths a day, maybe more if we g-GGgggagh!”

His wet shorts hurtled through the air, slopping heavily across his face and ending up strung around his horns. He fell back into the water with a splash, coming up sputtering a moment later. He slung water off his face, going to protest as noisily as usual, but paused when he heard something much nicer.

From up on the bank, Mei was laughing. Actual, genuine laughter. Even if it was slightly as his expense, although he’d sort of deserved that one. She was still laughing. He liked that, liked the sound of it.

And bloody hell but he’d get smacked in the face by wet shorts every day of his life if it meant he got to hear it again.


End file.
